Poor water quality, warmer temperatures causes massive fish kill along Little Egg Harbor lagoon
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (CBS) -- As soon as you turn onto Kentucky and Louisiana drives in Little Egg Harbor Township, you'll get a whiff of a pungent and rotten smell in the air.
That's because a massive fish kill has piled up in a lagoon on Osborn Island that residents are describing as "absolutely disgusting."
"It's disgusting, it is the worst smell in my entire life. It even goes inside the house. I burnt every candle I could possibly find and now I'm in my infusers," said Debbie Wuss, who lives near the lagoon.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said warmer temperatures and poor water quality are to blame.
"NJDEP Fish & Wildlife is aware of the fish mortality in the lagoon located in Little Egg Harbor Township, Ocean County. Staff determined that poor water quality resulting from warmer temperatures and low dissolved oxygen in the lagoon resulted in the fish mortality in the lagoon. Fish & Wildlife staff determined that this was an isolated event, and most of the dead fish will naturally be removed from the lagoon by the tides, or by tide flow."
In the photo above it looks like the boat ran aground into the sand, but that's actually the dead fish floating around the vessel.
Neighbors on Osborn Island said they first started noticing the dead fish in the lagoon Saturday afternoon.
Residents said they could smell the rotten odor inside their homes, and they couldn't sit outside right now, of course. The dead fish have also attracted a large number of seagulls to the area.
"The birds are destroying the tops of the houses. They're going all over the cars, all over your boats," said Bob O'Brien.
CBS News Philadelphia was told it also happened last year and neighbors said something needs to be done about this fishy situation.
"It's uncomfortable. You don't really want to spend time outside. People normally are coming down here for the summers and they're swimming, but you can't do that right now," Fin Handel said.
"It's awful. It's like nonstop and with the wind it just keeps blowing and blowing so the smell's not going to go away until the fish are out of here," Paula Handel said. "So it's going to be a long time of us smelling this rotten, dead fish smell."
Health officials told CBS News Philadelphia they do not advise swimming in any body of water with a large concentration of dead fish.